It has to be a valve problem, right?


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Old 05-10-09, 10:34 AM
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It has to be a valve problem, right?

I bought this 14.5 HP I/C Model 287707 Type-1224E1 to replace an 18.5 temporarily. It has good spark and (I think) gas though once in a while the plug will look dry. It will not start. It will backfire through the carb though. When I began working on it, I was certain it was getting gas because after a minute of turning it over you could see it spitting up fro the carb and the plug would be soaking wet with it.
I have adjusted the valves six times at different settings trying first 5 on the intake and 7 on the exhaust. Then we tried 4 and 6 and then 3 and 5. Nada
Now I say my spark is good but I just now read in here that the coil should have .010 air gap. I used a business card so that might be an issue, I don't know yet.
We tried a different carb.
During the valve adjustment, we saw something odd while we were turning it by hand. On the compression stroke, the intake valve will close but just as the exhaust valve closes, the intake pops open slightly and closes again. I read somewhere that it might be the easy spin thingy.
In any event, I have no idea where to go from here. Someone please tell me what to try next.
 
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Old 05-10-09, 01:56 PM
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I must be up against a tough one. 18 views and no help. That's ok. I'll wait.
 
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Old 05-10-09, 02:48 PM
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While you are waiting, I would suggest pulling the flywheel and checking for a partially sheared flywheel key which would put the timing off, creating the no start condition. Have a good one. Geo
 
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Old 05-10-09, 02:58 PM
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Last night we looked at that. We didn't actually pull the flywheel. We just looked down at it, saw the key and to our dumbass eyes, it looked ok. But, you are saying that it only has to be partially sheared to screw things up? Well, that's what I'm going to check next. I assume there is no way to get that flywheel off with out a puller?
 
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Old 05-10-09, 05:57 PM
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In the words of Lt. Dan from the movie Forrest Gump "Geogrubb, you a damn genius, boy!"
Anyplace around here that I could get a flywheel puller from is closed so I made one out of unistrut, a couple of bolts and an 11/16 socket. I popped that flywheel off and that key was sheared as clean as you like.
See now, we suspected that and looked down at the thing and we could see it but I don't know what we expected to see because it looked ok to us idiots.
On top of that, I just happened to have a straight key assortment I bought from a hardware store that was going out of business 15 years ago. I've never even opened it until now. And my wives made fun of me for being a packrat.
Geo, thanks a million.
 
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Old 05-10-09, 07:21 PM
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But is it running? Have a good one. Geo
 
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Old 05-11-09, 12:42 AM
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Nope. It wants to though. At first it fired right up and I let it run five seconds and shut it down so I could look it over to see what I had forgotten to do. Everything seemed ok so I tried to start it again. It started, dropped rpms and sputtered to a standstill. That's all it does now. Starts and dies. I think it'd flooding out.
Tomorrow is another day. I'll give it another shot in the morning.
 
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Old 05-11-09, 04:32 AM
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I don't know what you used for a flywheel key or if you torqued the flywheel nut. You should certainly use a Briggs 222698S, key as they're not exactly square and be sure to torque the nut to 90 foot pounds, for if you don't you'll likely shear the key again.
 
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Old 05-11-09, 11:54 AM
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I took the key from the other engine I had as my assortment did not have the right one. No torque wrench in my tool box and I can't quite figure out how to make one of those. So you are likely correct. I'll get the proper key and dig up a torque wrench. How do you hold the flywheel steady while torquing it? Strap wrench?
 
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Old 05-11-09, 02:48 PM
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Briggs makes a special flywheel holder for this engine but I doubt you have one so, yes, a strap wrench is next best.
 
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Old 05-11-09, 04:29 PM
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You could also remove the sparkplug and fill the cylinder with pull cord rope on the compression stroke to lock the engine while you torque the flywheel. Have a good one. Geo
 
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Old 05-11-09, 06:56 PM
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It's running again. Yes, the key was sheared. Got the right one and followed instructions. It fired right up, acceleates nicely and it idles reral nice even at a real low speed.
One thing bothers me. The muffler gets extremely hot. As I shut it down, I saw a flame shoot out the muffler. What now? Is that normal?
 
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Old 05-11-09, 10:07 PM
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It's normal for a muffler to get very hot. How hot is "very hot"? It shouldn't be glowing.
 
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Old 05-11-09, 11:56 PM
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It doesn't get red hot or anything and I know they get pretty darn hot. I left a pretty good size piece of my leg stuck to a 69 BSA 650 exhaust pipe.
Anyway, maybe it's just my imagination but it seemed unusually hot. I'll get a reading on it tomorrow.
I just got done putting the deck on and cranking it up. I'll find out in the morning if it will actually do the job.
 
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Old 05-21-09, 04:20 AM
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Everything seems fine. It has gotten a pretty decent workout and it all went well. Now I start getting ready to rebuild two 18.5 HP engines. It should be a fun winter project.
 
 

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